Perfect Crimes
by Nigelcat1
Summary: AU: Harry gets revenge with the help of an unknown relative. Dark and bashing run rampant. A 2013 story that I am posting as life and severe illness has given me writer's block.
1. Chapter 1 - A False Sense of Security

PERFECT CRIMES

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 1 – A False Sense of Security

Harry Potter knew – he always had. Unfortunately it had all been arranged so that there was nothing he could do about anything concerning his life, especially to live it as a human child should be able to such as to grow, learn, feel worthwhile, and…be loved.

But the "Devil" had beckoned with the promise of freedom and although something inside him fought against it (like it always did) he had made his decision during his trial before the assembled Wizengamot.

He had saved himself and his cousin Dudley from Dementors and had immediately been sent letters saying he had been expelled for the use of underage magic in front of a Muggle. The fact that he had been saving his life, or rather soul, and that of his cousin who knew about magic since he lived with Harry, apparently didn't matter. He was once again being railroaded by the Magical World and – surprise, surprise – at the very last possible minute when all hope had been lost and he was about to face his doom, in comes Dumbledore in all of his badly dressed, twinkling glory to "save the day" once again.

At least that was the drill and usual modus operandi. It didn't matter that Dumbledore had been responsible somehow and in some way unseen and unknowable by all (especially supposedly Harry) for whatever predicament Harry found himself in, the fact that _he was publically seen_ to be saving the day once again served to keep his "legend" intact and growing.

But Harry knew everything was staged, he just didn't know for what particular reason as Dumbledore kept his secrets and was more silent than an Egyptian tomb. But what else was new!

His mind was already 75% made up but between the save-the-day entrance and his first sight and sound of the pink clad "toad woman" and then Fudge's obvious actions, the other 25% was added and as he was led back to the prison that was Grimmauld Place, his soul had been irretrievably sold.

All he had to do now was survive the stomach turning drama, the annoying platitudes and refrain from viciously and violently ax murdering all of the current inhabitants of this new hellhole until he could reach Hogwarts and the "fun" could begin in earnest.

He also had to figure out how to cause harm to himself without people finding out he had done it but not enough to be permanently damaged or incapacitated. He knew that Draco Malfoy would attempt to claim credit for the injuries which would be happening or at least until he also became a victim.

It had not been easy to control himself especially after – surprise, surprise – Ron was made the Prefect for the Gryffindor fifth year boys. Naturally Hermione was made a Prefect also but she was really the only suitable candidate. However, she probably thought that it was a reward for "services rendered" to Dumbledore.

Although an "imp" had told him Ron was going to be made Prefect, Harry knew it was only logical that Ron would get the honor and not him. If it hadn't been Harry then it definitely should have been Neville not only because Neville was an honorable, hardworking and conscientious individual but because he was a Pureblood and despite all of the trashed talked by Dumbledore, Purebloods were usually made Prefects. The only time a Muggleborn became a Prefect was if the rest of their peers were soooo, verrrryyyy baaddd and the Muggleborn was so very good, or, like Hermione, they had made a deal with the Devil - er Dumbledore.

But any fool (and there were many in the Order) could see by both Mrs. Weasley's and Ron's actions and behaviors that it was a set up. Harry even noticed that McGonagall, who as his Head of House made the decision, sat tight lipped at the table silently but noticeably angry during the party thrown to celebrate Ron – oh and Hermione – receiving the honor.

Molly kept directing very smug and self-satisfied looks at the clearly irate Head of House. Remus Lupin kept giving Harry very sad looks and once even squeezed Harry's hand while looking at him in an attempt to convey his sympathy at the unfairness of it all. Harry just ignored him.

Sirius and the Twins had shown their "sympathy" by making jokes about it mostly saying that being a Prefect cramped a prankster's style and only people like Percy actually wanted the job, etc.

Ron was lording it over Harry just to rub it into his face that he Ron Weasley was much better than Harry or whatever jealous, backstabbing and petty opinions Ron held. Whereas Harry didn't show any jealousy and had warmly congratulated Ron on getting the honor, Ron knew – HE JUST KNEW – that inside Potter was crying his heart out because the totally awesome and more worthy Ron Weasley had gotten something that was rightfully Harry's and Harry couldn't do anything about it because Dumbledore had arranged it all.

Harry really didn't care because he knew what he was going to do to Ron Weasley just as soon as they got to Hogwarts and he couldn't wait to do it. So he watched Ron enjoy the last fruits of his treachery and betrayal – while trying not to kill him now.

Harry had always been a very good actor as he had to be to survive not only the Dursleys but his time at Hogwarts. Now he had to prepare himself for some BAFTA and Academy Award winning performances if his plans were to succeed.

This time HE WOULD WIN AND WIN ALL.


	2. Chapter 2 - It Begins

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 2 – It Begins

He survived Grimmauld Place and spent his time finalizing his plans. The train ride to Hogwarts was even worse than usual with not only Ron and Hermione lording it over all that they were Prefects but also Malfoy who back to school taunt brought the obvious to Harry's attention (like he didn't already know) that Ron was a Prefect and Harry wasn't.

The only good thing that happened on the train ride was that Harry had "officially" gotten to meet Luna Lovegood. They had known each other since Luna's first year when she brought Ginny's strange behavior to Harry's attention but also warned him that "certain forces had their usual plans in place so Harry could do nothing before it was deemed the "right time." So they had been secret friends along with Neville and Su Li a Ravenclaw in their year.

There are always unforeseeable variables but when Harry saw the odious toad woman sitting at the Head Table, he knew that she was a Ministry plant and just had to be the new Defense teacher. He also knew that she would be targeting him worse than Snape or even Quirrell ever did. And he was right, as usual.

After his first detention with the miserable creature he angrily went back to the common room where Hermione was waiting up for him. He didn't think about it until later but although it was after curfew, it was still early yet the room was empty except for Hermione. Where were all of the upper years who stayed downstairs until midnight most days?

Although it was usual for her to wait up for him, Ron was usually with her yet he was "sleeping" and it seemed almost like a set up. Naturally she started grilling him which would lead to a chastisement until she noticed his hand. He explained the situation and she went up to her room and came down with murtlap to treat his hand. Why did she just happen to have murtlap in her room as it wasn't one of the potion ingredients they were responsible for buying themselves?

She treated his hand and, as usual, advised him to tell a teacher. Not that it did any good – ever – but this time he agreed with her, much to her shock. "Let's go see McGonagall right now," he said. "You are a Prefect and I am a student with 'an injury' and it is your duty to call this to her attention."

He waited for her reply and for once in her life she hesitated giving an answer. Finally she said it was much too late to bother Professor McGonagall as his injury wasn't life threatening and since she had treated it they didn't have to go to the Infirmary. Harry knew something was off, more than usual at least, so he went along with it mainly because _**she wasn't going to do it and nothing he could say or do would change her mind.**_

He went to McGonagall as soon as possible the next day. If fact, he had gotten up extra early and went to her quarters to catch her before she couldn't be warned that he was looking for her. He certainly couldn't talk to her in the Great Hall at breakfast with Umbridge present.

McGonagall had opened her door to find out that it was Harry Potter doing the excessive knocking. Since it "wasn't an emergency" and she was still in her nightclothes and bathrobe she told him to see her later and considered him "dismissed" but he pushed past her and entered her room.

"What makes you think this isn't an emergency?" he asked as he walked in.

She hesitated for a moment before recovering and said, "Because if it was a true emergency you would be accompanied by a Prefect and since you are not then…"

"Well I consider it an emergency," he snapped.

He quickly told her about the detention and showed his hand. He then waited for her reply knowing that she was going to downplay anything he was saying. She did. She told him to keep his head down and guided him to the door and out of her quarters.

Well that was the last straw. The reign of terror would begin and begin that very day.

McGonagall noticed that Harry Potter wasn't at breakfast. He didn't show up for his first class of the day. However, he made it to his second class and then lunch. According to Hermione Granger, he had gone to the Infirmary to show his injury to Pomfrey and get treatment. Poppy reported it to her colleague and, as per Albus' orders, told the boy there was nothing she could do for him other than to administer the essence of murtlap like Hermione had done.

Minerva sighed. Poppy, as always, was furious that she wasn't allowed to do anything for the boy, but Albus had Poppy under an oath which severely limited not only the treatment she could give the boy but forbade her from doing her duty to report to a higher authority his true state of health. While Minerva felt bad for Harry there was nothing that any of them could do to help Harry Potter because what Dumbledore ordered was to be obeyed without question.

Poor Harry would just have to suffer and hopefully for once really would keep his head down and stay out of trouble. She sighed again because she knew that he wouldn't be able to as that was another one of Albus' orders. Harry Potter would be challenged and "tested" beyond the normal range of things and beyond the endurance of any normal person, especially a teenage boy. All Albus ever said was that it was needed and had to be done for the "Greater Good" and he would hear no objection to his orders.

She also knew that Umbridge had given Potter more unfair detentions as she had bragged about it in front of all of the teachers and the Headmaster himself. Albus had ordered them all not to antagonize Umbridge as they would soon find themselves unemployed and perhaps even serving time in a Ministry jail cell or worst.

Harry Potter did not show up for breakfast the next day and according to a very upset Granger, he had not slept in his bed last night or had even returned to the Tower after his detention. He didn't show up for lunch or any of his classes. By the evening meal he was still missing and Umbridge had noticed. Now he was in real trouble as Umbridge declared a very thorough search was to begin to find the Boy-Who-Lied and was now the Boy-Who-Was-Hiding "no doubt due to no one believing his outrageous lies" she had smirked.

The next morning the headlines of the _Daily Prophet_ screamed out

" _KARMA PUNISHES BOY-WHO-LIED"_

Umbridge smiled an even worse evil, sickening smile as she happily explained to the Head Table, and did it loud enough for a good part of the hall to hear, that "something" had happened to Potter. "It was rare and declared by St. Mungo's to be a form of poetic justice," she had smirked.

Long story short, after his second detention with Umbridge, his hand had started hurting badly and just as he was nearing Gryffindor Tower he was overcome by a dreadful pain and his hand started leaking pus. Somehow he had gotten to St. Mungo's where he received treatment and before he passed out from pain and trauma he had asked for Amelia Bones, the Head of the DMLE to be called.

She came, he told his story and she swore to help Potter and went off to report it to Cornelius Fudge. Fudge, being Fudge, denied it was "dear Delores' fault" and declared that Potter had done it to himself. Potter swore on his life and magic that he didn't but he was not believed. However, sensing some "good" publicity for the Ministry and his anti-Potter campaign, Fudge gave an exclusive interview to the _Prophet_ telling the "truth" of the circumstances.

Bones and the Healers at St. Mungo's had been furious beyond belief at the "explanation" as not only was it a medical impossibility even in the Magical World, it was ridiculous, totally untrue and had it happened in ANY OTHER COUNTRY OTHER THAN MAGICAL BRITAIN the government would have fallen due to the slanderous lawsuits which would have been filed against it.

However, since this was Britain's Magical government, not only was Fudge and Umbridge going to get away with it, they would use it to further slander and hurt Potter. The "real truth" was that Harry had had a serious allergic reaction to the blood quill. It had poisoned his system and had he not gotten himself to St. Mungo's when he did, he would have died especially if he had another detention.

The Ministry declared that a spell had been used on the boy to see if he had been doing a lot of lying lately. Since he had been guilty of outlandish lies the spell "punished him" by causing him to nearly _**lose his miserable, lying, worthless, trouble-making life**_.

It was a despicable miscarriage of justice even for the Fudge Administration but it was the official Ministry position and had been published in the _Daily Prophet_ so therefore it just further proved that Harry Potter was a liar and much worse as to quote Cornelius Fudge "Mere words cannot express what a disgraceful, disgusting, despicable, repugnant excuse for a wizard that Harry Potter is. No doubt it is something _he inherited from his Mother_ , _a Muggleborn witch_ " he boasted.

It looked like Harry Potter had once again been defeated by "his betters" as Draco Malfoy taunted when Harry was released from St. Mungo's. However, that was exactly what Harry wanted everyone to think. In reality he had gotten exactly what he wanted.

His right hand and arm were seriously compromised and due to his reaction and the treatment given to him, for the moment his arm was completely paralyzed. He couldn't write, needed help to eat and dress and, mostly importantly, he couldn't fly his broom so he couldn't play Quidditch. Everybody thought this would break Potter's heart and spirit. It really didn't but people _**thought it would**_ and that was what counted.

Also as a "punishment" for saving his own life by going to St. Mungo's without permission (not that it would have been given) and since he could now no longer do the special lines in detention, "Professor" Umbridge had to give him a new penance that would really teach him the proper lessons he so badly needed to learn his place and his worthlessness. She confiscated his wand.

At Hogwarts you only really needed to use your wand for Transfiguration, Charms and Defense. Since Umbridge was "teaching" Defense you didn't need a wand for that subject. Since you were not allowed to use your wand in the corridors as doing magic was forbidden, well "Potter could survive without it."

He "could" if he wasn't going to be hexed and cursed by every Slytherin and/or enemy in the school, which, naturally, was what would be happening to him on a regular basis, especially when it was made sure that Weasley and/or Granger were not shadowing him at all times like they always had. It was simple for him to be held back in class for a "chat" while the other Gryffindors hurried to their next class, and – surprise, surprise – Hermione and Ron didn't wait for him like they usually did when he was held back by a teacher. Wonder why? Then a few well aimed curses and hexes were anonymously cast on him.

Therefore Harry Potter couldn't be blamed for what would be happening next.

First it would be Ron's turn. It had not escaped Harry's attention that Ron left most of the little protection given to the wandless Harry in Hermione's hands. Harry could see the small smiles on Ron's face when an injured and bruised Harry finally made it to his next class or to meals. Then Ron would express some fake sympathy for Harry's plight, curse Slytherins and Umbridge and go back to whatever it was he was doing.

Usually he was eating when he commented on Harry's problems and then he wouldn't let up even when others told him to. No Ron was enjoying it all way too much at least until he started dying.

Ron woke up one morning feeling a bit of pain in his body but decided it was nothing more than hunger pains. He hurried off to breakfast with Harry and Hermione and he had barely flopped in his seat before shoveling massive amounts of food onto his plate then into his mouth, talking all the while and grossing everyone out as usual.

But today it didn't last long as after gobbling down his first plate of eggs, bacon, sausages, toast and a blueberry muffin, Ron felt a lot of pain. He winced, then ignored it and refilled his plate while "entertaining" the table with his musings on the chances of various Quidditch teams. He was half way through that plate when he doubled over in great pain.

He was taken to the Infirmary where a shocked Madam Pomfrey informed Minerva McGonagall that Ron Weasley HAD TO GO to St. Mungo's or he would die. There was no time to ask (or rather beg) permission from Dumbledore and/or Umbridge.

"To put this as simply as I can, his stomach is missing and the food he ate is poisoning his insides," she told her colleague.

Somehow Ron Weasley's stomach was completely gone and the area around it was magically cauterized to prevent any treatment to correct it, not that there was anything that could be done. Whereas bones could be regrown and certain organs repaired, there had to be something of that organ left to regrow. There was nothing and since the area around it had been magically cauterized, it was impossible to do or try anything with any chance of success.

To say that Molly Weasley was upset would be an understatement. When she and Arthur were summoned to the hospital and given the news she refused to believe it and demanded that Dumbledore be sent for to "do something" since the healers were apparently useless quacks and charlatans. To humor her he came, looked the boy over, conferred with the healers and then forced by the Head Healer to knock some sense into the witch and tell her the truth.

Molly refused to believe Dumbledore. Instead she went to the Head Healer and threatened to sue him and the hospital and that Dumbledore would see them all arrested. Then, just to be thorough and make certain they believe her, she started using bodily harm on any healer she could find. She ended up heavily sedated and locked in a special ward until she calmed down. After all, she would have to watch her son die a slow, painful, unavoidable death now wouldn't she.

And she did, but at least it was quick. Usually a person in reasonable health can last several weeks without eating, but Ron's body – not to mention his mind – went into shock. Potions couldn't be spelled into his stomach and although spells were used to repair the damage to his insides where the food had ended up, he couldn't drink water. All that was keeping him alive for the three extremely painful, angst-filled and frightening days were the spells, charms and his fear of death.

Ron couldn't believe he was actually dying as he was young and had so much to live for and to do. He hadn't even snogged a girl (or at least a willing one) let alone shagged one. He refused to believe it until it was too late and death was literally staring him in the face. He then requested that one of the medi-witches fuck him so he wouldn't die a virgin but ended up cursed for his request. His condition was too far gone for him to accomplish it even if he found someone stupid or "merciful" enough to do it.

So he died and Molly screamed, wailed, ranted, raved and acted like she was the only mother who had ever lost a child. She vowed that whoever did this to her sainted son would pay and pay horribly! But she would not ever get her revenge as this was really karma and it had only just begun.


	3. Chapter 3 - Staffing Problems

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 3 – Staffing Problems

Even the Slytherins were shocked by what had happened to Ronald Weasley. They were very glad, elated even, but they were still shocked.

Draco got to taunt Potter and Granger at the loss of their friend but for some reason both Gryffindorks managed to ignore him. No matter he knew they were both suffering due to the loss of the idiot so he felt better.

Bets were being made who would replace Weaselwipe as the third member of the Golden Trio. Draco wagered on Longbottom but Zabini and Pansy put their galleons on the Weaselette as it was an open secret that this year she was going to pounce on Potter and officially claim him as her own.

But they would all be wrong as Potter was still recovering from his problems and trying to avoid the curses and hexes still being sent his way due to the fact that his wand was still confiscated. Umbridge was taking over the school at an alarming rate and Dumbledore _**seemed**_ powerless to do anything about it.

However, Draco wasn't fooled in the least as his father knew that Dumbledore was up to something and had ordered Draco to be even more vigilant and alert concerning Dumbledore. Potter was powerless as everyone knew and his utter and total defeat and humiliation by Umbridge after so short a time proved to Draco at least that as usual, Dumbledore was playing Potter and seeing him tortured for the year. He just wondered what this year's "test" was going to be.

At least without a wand Potter couldn't be accused of anything. Well he could and even was accused of being bad every time a prank was pulled (when everyone knew it was the Weasley Twins who did it), something went bad, a potion expired in the Infirmary or some plants in the greenhouses didn't thrive or up and died. Umbridge saw to it and unfairly gave Potter even more detentions.

She had been advised by Fudge to keep giving Potter detentions but not with her as he had barely managed to save the day after the bastard's allergic reaction to the blood quill had nearly killed him. It had never been said or acknowledged in any way but Fudge knew that Delores had sent those Dementors to off Potter. If the kid had died or been sent to Azkaban it would have been worth it but it had been too close a call to risk something stupid.

So Potter was given as many detentions as possible. The plan was not one of just publically humiliating him and secretly abusing him, no now it had expanded into making sure he failed his OWLS. If he didn't have the time or energy to study and do his homework, he would not have a Muggle's chance of surviving at a Death Eater convention to pass these important tests.

When (not if) he failed he still might be expelled for academic incompetence and exiled from Magical Britain and thus sent away from his homeland. Fudge would gladly settle for that as even Delores couldn't find a way to send someone to Azkaban for miserably failing their school work, or at least not yet.

So far things were going splendidly as Potter's health was still poor due to the allergic reaction, he was being severely and constantly hurt due to being cursed and hexed because he didn't have a wand to defend himself and now his "best mate" had died painfully and under mysterious circumstances. It was a pity that Potter couldn't be blamed for the death but that would have been a stretch and Delores hadn't had the time because she had been so busy destroying the school.

Since Potter was on his way to doom and destruction, Delores had decided to concentrate her efforts on Dumbledore as next to stopping Potter's "lies" getting rid of Dumbledore was Fudge's chief objective.

Despite what she did, Dumbledore merely smiled and, she knew in her mind, allowed it all to happen as he was still such a person of great esteem and popularity, he was still almost untouchable unless she could arrange for something undeniably career-ruining to happen. She was quite determined to do so.

Everything was going her way it seemed especially when that obnoxious Weasley boy died. Then, joy upon joy, something unexpected happened to the annoying Mudblood Granger. She developed a very serious throat problem two days after Ron died. It wasn't life threatening but still, it was a pleasure to behold. She had lost her voice and from what that miserable Half-blood medi-witch was saying she should really be sent to St. Mungo's for further treatment otherwise she might get worse.

Once again luck was on her side as it was an open secret that a Hogwarts student had to be at death's door before Dumbledore would allow him or her to be sent to St. Mungo's. If for some reason that student was a Mudblood, then it was all for the better as they would remain at Hogwarts to live or die. Therefore, Granger was stuck in the Hogwarts Infirmary and Potter had one less protector as he walked the halls of Hogwarts alone and wandless.

Then when she thought that things couldn't get any better, they did. She received an urgent message from the Ministry to attend a very important meeting concerning "the problem." She left for her meeting happy and confident that Cornelius had found a way to get rid of Dumbledore immediately or perhaps even Potter. She had been urging him to bring him to trial for killing the Diggory boy but he had not had any success. Now hopefully he had and not only could they convict Potter but maybe he could be given the Kiss or thrown through the Veil.

The meeting was for 11:00 p.m. at the Ministry. It had to be a secret meeting then for at that time of night no one, not even the reception guard, was there. Not even Aurors guarded the place as it was considered a useless expense so unless there was a justifiable emergency, the place was empty except for a few late night workers who didn't matter.

Unfortunately the floo system wasn't working so she had to apparate to the Muggle entrance and get in that way. That is when it happened. As she started to access the secret entrance to the Ministry she was grabbed from behind, spun around and saw to her horror that there, standing in front of her, his strong arms holding her fast, was a vicious _WEREWOLF_ and he was going to bite her!

The still living body of Delores Umbridge was found in front of the Muggle entrance to the Ministry when a junior associate left after finishing up a project. She was taken to St. Mungo's and a diagnosis was made. Cornelius Fudge was summoned immediately and told the tragic news. It was decided to keep it out of the newspapers. Naturally the story in all in gruesome horror made the front pages of the _Prophet_.

The full moon happened just eight days after her attack and much to her great fear and dread Delores Umbridge underwent her first and last transformation. The shock of it all was the cause of her death two days later.

Many, many people both at the Ministry and Hogwarts celebrated. Harry sincerely hoped, but knew better, that his many detentions would be lifted and he would get his wand back. Unfortunately this was not to be as the Umbridge was sent to St. Mungo's, Fudge sent another Ministry lackey to carry on with her necessary and important work.

Harry thought that nobody could be worse than Umbridge until he saw the smirking, vicious, rather ugly-looking face of Walden McNair, resident Ministry sadist and known Death Eater, looking directly at him from the Head Table as Dumbledore introduced Umbridge's replacement to the school.

If McNair was expecting a different reaction than the one he actually received from Harry he was in for a disappointment. The cowering fear McNair was hoping for was met with indifference and McNair felt insulted that the boy didn't recognize him as the man who was supposed to execute the hippogriff two years ago. The fact that McNair had been wearing his executioner's mask had been forgotten by the sadist and McNair wondered if Potter hadn't seen him at the cemetery when he had been called like the others to witness the Dark Lord's triumphant return. No matter, McNair would soon put the fear of McNair into Potter.

Harry had recognized him but managed to keep an indifferent mask in place. Malfoy was already trying to get his attention so that he could smirk and taunt Potter concerning McNair's appointment. But poor Draco, and especially McNair, were going to be in for a very bad disappointment as Harry was too busy deciding how McNair was going to meet his doom. Harry had been able to escape from the Great Hall without running into either of his potential abusers.

Draco would corner Potter shortly and although Potter didn't have a defense class until tomorrow, McNair was already making arrangements to summon Potter to his new office so that he could "lay down the law" to the bastard and give him a preview of what horrors he would shortly be enduring.

However, poor McNair, he wouldn't be doing any of that because before Potter could walk into his web of fear he would die – not Potter, McNair. Yep, before lunch McNair had decided to visit Hagrid and remind the half-giant about the end of Harry Potter's third year. But he didn't get to do even that because as he exited the school, one of the gargoyles on an outside wall decided to fall off and land on McNair's head.

In what had to be a record for "losing a professor" at Hogwarts, McNair had lasted about three or so hours "teaching" Defense before his broken, smashed, bloody body was brought into the Infirmary and a Ministry representative could be summoned.

Harry Potter had a perfect alibi as he had no wand, his arm was mostly healed but still not usable and at the time McNair was exiting the school Harry had been in potions being insulted, harassed and abused by Snape in front of the entire class.

An investigation was quickly done by the Ministry and the death was found to be due to a piece of masonry which had weathered severe storm damage. Dumbledore got in trouble for this one, not Harry, because it was Dumbles' job to make sure the buildings were always in good repair. He pleaded lack of sufficient funds granted by the Board of Governors and a fight broke out which lasted long after the next two Ministry appointed Defense teachers met their doom.

The next day saw Elton Havelock, one of those totally incompetent fools who only had a job at the Ministry because he was a Pureblood. Havelock worked at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in the Ghoul Task Force Section not doing much except pushing parchment around and agreeing with everything Cornelius Fudge said or did just like a good lackey was supposed to do. He had been working in his dead-end job for 13 years and did it "adequately" if only to keep it from going to a worthier Half-blood.

Fudge didn't want to put in anybody he could afford to lose until the investigations into Delores' and McNair's deaths were finalized. He was still hoping one or both could be blamed on Potter but even he knew it would be a stretch. Besides Havelock was flattered as he considered this job a promotion and since he was so incompetent a wizard, he would do his job exactly in the way Fudge wanted it done, namely not teach anything worth a damn.

Havelock made it to his first class and strutted into the classroom like he was a god or a Malfoy. He addressed the third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and gave them a brief outline of his goals as well as those which the Ministry had written up for him to say.

He then pulled out his wand to show off a bit by causing all the books to open to the page he wanted them to start reading. However, instead of saying the correct spell, he yelled out loudly "Accio" and all the books came hurtling right at him. He attempted to dodge the books and in his haste moved too quickly and ran into a wall. He not only smashed his face very hard into the cragged masonry but all the books swerved and followed him to obey the summoning.

Long story short, he managed to snap his neck and died instantly. At least he accomplished his plan of making a _lasting impression_ on the students in his very first (and last) class.

His death broke McNair's record and probably anybody else's and now Fudge had to find another person/spy.

But the record would, in fact, be broken the very next day. Auror Merlin Mickle wasn't anything like his exalted namesake, far from it. He had barely squeaked by in Auror School and had only gotten into the corps because the war was on and there was a desperate need for Aurors. Most of his "career" was spent serving as a guard in Azkaban, where he was noted for his extreme cruelty to the prisoners. He was just what Fudge was looking for to demoralize the school and "get" Potter.

The very night of the day which Havelock had died Mickle went out to celebrate not only finally getting out of Azkaban but being "promoted" to a Hogwarts teacher. He and his few friends went out and got wasted. He could barely stand because he had gotten so damn drunk. His friends managed to get him cleaned up so that he could arrive at Hogwarts for the breakfast meal and to be introduced by Dumbledore as the new Defense teacher.

Still in a state of partial inebriation he made an impromptu speech outlining "his plans for this school" and glared menacingly while doing it. A very "uncomfortable" meal was had and then Dumbledore sent the Head Boy to show "Professor Mickle" to his classroom.

However, soon a panicked Head Boy ran back into the Great Hall shouting for help. Dumbledore and the Heads ran after the Head Boy to find Auror Mickle lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of one of the movable staircases.

"We were going up the stairs when Professor Mickle started getting sick," said the Head Boy. "All of a sudden he leaned over the bannister and started to throw up but then he leaned over too far and before I could react, the staircase shifted and he fell over. I was too busy hanging on the bannister – the staircase was shaking so I had no choice – and before I could try to accio him, he had fallen and, well there you have it."

Coward that he was, Dumbledore made McGonagall call this one into Fudge.

The "curse of the Defense position" was blamed for the four deaths. Harry Potter had been in the Great Hall finishing his breakfast when Mickle fell off the stairs, so he had an airtight alibi just like he had with all the others.

Fudge was now in full panic mode as nobody wanted to be assigned to this cursed job. Fudge wanted to withdraw the class from the Hogwarts curriculum but that certainly could not be allowed as even the Board of Governors forbade his request. Defense was a core subject and Hogwarts standards had deteriorated too much since Dumbledore became Headmaster and this class just had to be taught.

Therefore, Dumbledore took the opportunity to use the deaths and the Board's desperation to his advantage. Even though there was no way possible for Harry Potter to be the cause of these deaths, Dumbledore noticed that all "teachers" assigned by Fudge had or would have (if they lived) abused the boy as much as possible. Although Dumbledore really didn't care how badly treated Potter was, it was suspicious.

Granger had reported that Potter had been very withdrawn and more brooding than usual before the trumped up trial and since the trial he was withdrawn deeper into himself. She was worried that he didn't care that Ron was dead. Then she had come down with her throat infection and had been out of commission for over a week but she had mercifully survived and was back to her nagging ways only to receive indifference from Harry.

Since Fudge was so desperate to find a teacher, he would probably accept even a werewolf, so now Dumbledore called back Remus Lupin to teach.

It was greeted with joy and even relief because despite the fact that he was a werewolf, he had been certifiably the best Defense teacher in the last twenty years. Since Harry loved him he would never see harm done to Remus as it would also break the heart of his beloved godfather. So Remus came back to teach, the Umbridge books were thrown away and new books quickly bought and distributed and things looked fine.

But Dumbledore was wrong. Harry was really, really pissed at Remus and Sirius and just about everyone but most especially Dumbledore. Poor Remus lasted a few days or at least until it was time for him to take his first dose of Wolfbane potion as the full moon was nearing.

Snape had not only brewed the potion but made sure that Lupin would take it to prevent "the accident" which had happened the last time he was teaching at Hogwarts. After taking the first dose, the potion would be placed at Lupin's seat at the Head Table by the house elves at the dinner meal. All Lupin had to do was to drink the potion and then eat his meal. And he did. Then he died.

After he finished off the potion in his usual one big gulp, he set down the goblet, picked up his fork and was about to eat when the potion hit his stomach. He screamed in agony, clutched his stomach and then started foaming at the mouth. A snarly Ravenclaw Muggleborn would later refer to the incident as "dinner theater" as everyone watched the latest Defense teacher writher in his death throes as Snape, Pomfrey, Flitwick and even Dumbledore tried to help him.

An investigation was begun and it was found that the Wolfbane potion had been tampered with and silver dust as well as mercury had been added to the bottle containing the potion doses which the elves were in charge of putting in his goblet. Four poor, hysterical elves were roughly interrogated by the Ministry but were found to be innocent but one elderly elf died due to the coarse and brutal treatment he received.

It was decided that for this year at least, all students, even those who needed to take their OWLS and NEWTS would read the textbooks and "practice" on their own as no one was crazy or desperate enough to consider taking the job.

That suited Harry just fine. As long as he had a decent book and a place to practice he would learn. He added Neville, Hermione, and certain other Gryffindors to his practice sessions and a few others from Ravenclaw such as Padma Patel, Su Li, Terry Boot and Luna Lovegood. A few Hufflepuffs snuck in like Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and their year mates and for the first time since Remus Lupin had taught, they actually learned something. Harry was a great teacher but, naturally, would not be given any credit for it, except by the students he taught.

Harry only had two problems – Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley. Hermione tried to take over the teaching and make it seem like she was the one doing all of the work so as to reap the rewards and receive the grateful thanks of her Housemates and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. She did "suggest" many spells, mostly those she heard were most likely to be found on the OWLS and NEWTS from previous years, but Harry just taught the ones he was good at (namely all of them) while Hermione taught her spells to "her students."

Harry ended up with more students than Hermione who slunk back to be taught but she still took a large amount of credit.

Ginny Weasley was becoming a problem as she had decided to "make her move a year earlier" and make Harry date her. He wasn't interested and let her know in very clear terms that he wasn't. He went so far as to inform the Twins that "I'm not now nor can I foresee ever being interested in your sister so call her off."

The Twins, who really liked Harry but had their orders from Mummy refused to get involved and warned that what Ginny wanted she eventually got so if Harry was smart and wanted to avoid a lot of grief, "just date her, give her what she wants and your life will be a lot easier."

Harry had merely looked them both in the eye and snapped out a few obscenities at them. He even threatened to "uninvest" in their future joke shop until the smiling Twins informed him that it was too late to do that so just accept his fate and date Ginny. "She'll get you one way or another, so just give up now," they laughingly told him before pranking him with a few hexes and going on their merry little way.

But now Harry was more than angry and it was time for someone to die. He still had an alibi for using magic as his wand was still only given to him to use when he was in the Transfiguration and Charms classes. Professor Flitwick took pity on Harry and "loaned him his wand" when he taught and practiced his Defense "homework" but was duty bound to take it back immediately.

Of course Harry had complained to McGonagall several times but "she could do nothing about it" as Umbridge's punishment stood and even though she was dead Fudge was still enforcing it as, apparently, Harry was being investigated for several things so it was considered "prudent" that he shouldn't have unsupervised access to a wand until the investigations were completed.

"And what do these investigations consist of?" he had asked McGonagall.

She had sighed wearily before replying, "You are suspected in the death of Cedric Diggory, the attempted murder of your cousin Dudley by luring Dementors to Surrey to suck out his soul and thus kill him, you are being investigated as Fudge received a tip _'from a reliable source'_ that you committed the murders of all of this year's Defense teachers, even Remus Lupin and, last but not least, having an agenda to create panic and overthrow the Fudge Administration by lying that You-Know-Who is back."

"Oh is that all?" Harry replied sarcastically. "Hasn't anybody accused me of dropping those two atomic bombs or Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Black Death of 1348-50, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the huge but unexplained and purported meteor explosion in Siberia in 1908, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the…"

"Mr. Potter that will be quite enough out of you," snapped McGonagall. "Why do you always think yourself to be a victim when you clearly…"

"Because I am a victim."

"MR. POTTER! Enough is enough. You are not going to get possession of your wand until the Ministry says otherwise. Just accept it and…"

"So why won't Dumbledore talk to me?"

"That is Professor or Headmaster Dumbledore and he is very busy and cannot be bothered by the whining of an adolescent boy," he was told by his annoyed Head of House.

Now Harry was really getting mad and he walked up to his Head of House and got close enough to her to rub noses before demanding to be told, "What's this latest bit of nonsense about me being thrown off the Quidditch team? "I was told by Angelina that since I am being punished and investigated that I am being replaced by Ginny Weasley and that they expect me to ' _ **GIVE**_ her my broom' since she doesn't have one good enough to play against the Slytherins."

That was news to McGonagall. She hadn't heard that one but it sounded like something the Ministry might do, removing him from the Quidditch team at least. But Ginny Weasley being chosen as his replacement and he was supposed to give his broom over to her.

"What do you mean Ginny is now your replacement and you have to give your broom to her?"

"Just what I said. Ginny was subbing for me at practice until my arm healed. Now today Angelina informed me what I just told you. I want clarification that I am officially off the team whether it is by Ministry edict or because someone here suddenly decided I was to be abused in such a way."

"I'll check and get back to you about that," she said sheepishly before basically kicking him out of her office. Harry was their star player and she really didn't want him off the team. If he was being punished with more detentions – Snape was seeing that he received several since he had finished the ones Umbridge had given him – and was prevented from doing his homework and studying, well she could accept that, but missing Quidditch practice and playing, no she could not allow that to happen.

So once again Harry was being given the runaround, abused, overworked, taunted, insulted and told that there was nothing could be done about it.

But they were wrong as it was time for a little shaking up, a lot of mischief to be done and extreme payback to be given to the wicked.


	4. Chapter 4 - Harry Gets Even

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 4 – Harry Gets Even

Yep, Harry was angry but what else was new. He had no doubt what Angelina had told him was true he just wanted to know how she knew it before McGonagall did as the Head had been surprised.

Well one thing was certain, Ginny wasn't getting his broom. He also was not going to date her even if he had to stand on the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall at suppertime and swear on his life and magic to that effect. Of course someone would probably stop him before he could complete the oath and he would have to borrow someone's wand to attempt the oath, but he'd worry about that later.

He didn't feel like going back to Gryffindor Tower yet because then he would run into Ginny and she would demand he hand over his broom, that he take her out this upcoming Hogsmeade weekend and who knew what else. Or Hermione would pounce on him once he set foot inside the Tower as she would, as usual, be angry that he had managed to escape her after dinner and go to McGonagall's office. Since she had lost Ron it was becoming harder to keep Harry in her sights but no doubt once Harry "started dating Ginny" Ginny would pick up the slack.

No, Ginny wouldn't because she would be the next to die. Making sure he was not near any painting, suit of armor or that Peeves or any of the ghosts were around, he donned his cloak and snuck off to an alcove and then activated his secret, untraceable portkey. He appeared in his "lair" and took off the cloak before calling out "Samson" and seeing his new house elf appear.

Samson had appeared to Harry late one night shortly after Harry arrived home from Hogwarts. Harry had just woken up his relatives with his first really bad "Cedric nightmare" and after he had been promptly beaten for waking up his "normal, hardworking relatives with his freakishness" he had been left to wallow in his pain and once again heal his injuries using his wandless magic.

As he lay on the floor trying not to move too much as well as not to cry, he heard a soft pop and then saw a familiar body shape in the darkness. Then a soft glow appeared revealing an unknown house elf who held in his hands a small box. Putting a finger up to his mouth the elf whispered, "Have no fear Harry Potter, Samson is here to help you, to heal you and tell you many things."

The elf must have cast a wall of silence around the room as even though he talked in a whisper one never knew if Vernon was lurking outside the door to strike immediately if he heard any type of sound coming from Harry.

As the elf took the supplies out of the box and began using the contents as well as his elfin magic to heal Harry, they had a very nice chat.

Samson belonged to a distant relative on Lily Evans side of the family. Actually she had been Harry's Great-Great-Grandmother. Her only child had been the mother of Lily's Father, who was a Squib. Lily had been the first surviving member in the Evans Family to have magic since Great Grandmother Evans. That meant that Petunia was also a Squib.

In an ironic twist of fate, Owen Evans had married another Squib, who knew nothing about magic as she had been adopted at birth. Owen didn't tell his wife until he noticed that Lily was doing accidental magic.

Due to a very silly and greatly regretted incident, "G3" as Samson said Harry should refer to his Great-Great-Granny to save time, had been maneuvered into taking an oath to not have anything to do with her descendants and had regretted it as soon as it was done, but that was a long story to be told, maybe, some other time.

Therefore G3 had not been able to step in and "save" any of her few remaining family members, especially a Great, Great Nephew who had been cruelly mislead and cheated out of having a decent life, but again that was another long story which Samson couldn't explain yet.

Thus G3 had been forced to watch helplessly as her family was destroyed, little by little and that Harry was basically all that she had left. However, she had made arrangements that after she died, then her agents could rescue Harry from his fate. She had died a week after the second task of the Tournament and it had taken the last four months for her wishes to be carried out and arrangements to be made and put into play.

"Samson must relay Mistress G3's sincerest apologies that things could not be done sooner, but much had to be done and Samson had to wait until Master Harry had finished with the Tournament. Then the Dark One came back and Samson could not risk retrieving Master until he be sent back here to place of evil and pain."

That certainly described the Dursley residence.

Unfortunately as Samson continued with his briefing, what Mistress G3 had always suspected was true and Master Harry could not be rescued immediately because Dumbledore had Harry tightly in his control and had ways and means of tracking him and keeping him from escaping. Thus, until certain things could be done Harry could not be rescued. It would take some time but it would be done as Mistress G3 had other elves helping but since Dumbledore had done so many "bad things" concerning Harry, it would be slow work correcting all of the wrongs.

"Samson can only tell Master that once everything is ready, Master Harry will be rescued and it will be done very quickly and probably without warning. Until that time Samson will care for young Master and tell him the many things he needs to know before that rescue."

So every night after Harry was locked in his room, Samson came, brought him food and nutrient potions, healed the injuries he received during the day and made him take potions which would heal him slowly but surely. He then gave him a few lessons as well as a few items which he was to wear on his person at all times.

"These be amulets which will protect Master from spells and hexes. Master will also be alerted when he is being given a potion which he should not be and then it can be flushed out. There are many spells and blocks placed on Master which cannot be removed until we elves can free Master but until then he must eat good food, take good potions and prepare himself for this next school year as the powers that be are gathering to do nothing but harm to Master, especially bad Wizard Dumbledore."

Samson told Harry some of the things which Dumbledore had been doing to him since _before_ his birth. The elves were checking on things and they had heard that Fudge was planning bad things for Harry Potter so that he would be stopped from telling the truth that Fudge didn't want to hear. It would probably happen before Harry went back to school so Samson told him to be very careful.

Then the Dementors happened. It seemed Fudge was really desperate until Samson said that Fudge hadn't done it but was going to use it to his advantage. "Ugly toad woman sent Dementors to solve what she calls 'the Potter problem' but even though Master survived, it is being used to try and get Master expelled."

The Order had retrieved Harry and taken him off to Grimmauld Place. Samson didn't appear to Harry for three days as it had taken him that long to find out where Harry was and get there undetected. He also had to be careful not to be caught by the Order members or "crazy elf Kreacher" who, for some unexplained reason Samson urged Harry to make friends with.

Then the trial was held, he met the toad woman, there was Dumbledore's theatrical last minute "saving" of Harry once again and the last weeks of his holiday spent at Grimmauld Place. That in itself had been horrible. Harry had managed to make a sort of friend with Kreacher by confiding in the old, miserable elf that he didn't really like his godfather or any of the other blood traitors and filth and that he had recently found out his Mother was a descendent of Purebloods and not a Mudblood.

Harry had been telling the truth as he had never really gotten to know Sirius and had only been using him as a potential escape from the Dursleys. His behavior after Harry rescued him from certain death had not been impressive. Granted Sirius was in hiding from the Ministry and to get back his health but he had once again not kept his promises to Harry.

After finally being able to have a talk or two with Sirius at Grimmauld Place Harry found out that Sirius' "getting back his health" had consisted of going to a tropical area, spending time on the beach making up for lost time by finding and shagging as many woman and girls over 16 that he could find (even though he had to glamour himself to hide his Azkaban appearance), doing a lot of heavy drinking and eating and just "being himself" while his "beloved godson" went through the horrors of his fourth year.

He had promised to send Harry instructions and his notes on becoming an animagus, but hadn't, nor had he told him any more on the subject while Harry was at Grimmauld Place. No, Sirius just spent his time being yelled at by Molly, controlled by Dumbledore, picking fights with Snape and acting like the immature, spoiled, self-centered CHILD he had always been. All he talked to Harry about was how he and James had ruled Hogwarts, the hilarious pranks they had played (most of which were just plain cruel), the things they had done to Snape just because he was an ugly, stupid, _Half-blood_ bastard Slytherin and because "they could" as well as all of the girls they seduced, shagged and then publically dumped.

Harry had asked about his Mother but Sirius would only say she had been stupid and it took her a long, long time to wise up and see how awesome James really was and that once James "finally got her" that he had actually married her. That had slipped out and had been hastily covered up by Remus but Harry heard it. He pretended he didn't and just smiled and kept on listening, but he did not forget.

Before Harry left Grimmauld Place he decided to write off Sirius Black as the man didn't care for Harry and just thought of him as a replacement for James. He only wanted to mold Harry into a James clone and the only "lessons" he'd give Harry was how to be like James.

Kreacher had been a wealth of information and Samson had managed to sneak in and give Harry more information about "his friends" and all of those who were supposed to care for him and "love" him. Dumbledore was the worst with the Weasleys coming in a close second.

The only way that Harry could avoid some of the things that were going to happen to him was to "get them before they got him" or in plain English, kill or be killed. So he had made arrangements with Samson and even Kreacher to payback certain people before he could be rescued, harmed further or…killed.

That was why Harry had allowed some of the things to happen to him. However, for everything accomplished, he just seemed to fall further and further behind. Most of it was Dumbledore's fault and perhaps it was merely Harry's imagination or the fact that many of the things he had suspected concerning Dumbledore over the years were actually true, but this year it seemed that Dumbledore was pulling out all stops because Voldemort was back and Harry's life was going to be even more horrendous, abusive and dangerous than ever before.

Samson gave Harry an update on how the "Dumbledore problem" was coming along, what was being done about Fudge as Harry was now really gunning for him and how they were going to "take care of" a few people before it was time for Harry to leave. Samson estimated that Samhein or Halloween, which was quickly approaching might be the "time" to escape. As something bad usually happened to Harry on that date, if he disappeared people would just think it was his usual "Halloween incident" and think nothing of it.

But first what to do about Ginny? Samson said that Kreacher had volunteered to see to that blood traitor slut. The entire time while she was at Grimmauld Place, Ginny was constantly teasing the portrait of Kreacher's beloved Mistress.

Ginny's brother Bill had secretly gifted his little sister with a special rune which when placed on the portrait would silence it until the rune was removed. It was their little secret as Ginny had to use her wand to activate and deactivate the rune and since Molly wouldn't allow any of _her children_ , which also included Harry and Hermione, to use magic, Ginny would get in trouble if caught, so she simply wasn't going to get caught.

So Ginny had spent her time torturing the portrait and for that Kreacher wanted her dead. Harry couldn't wait for whatever surprise ending the old elf had in store for Ginny, he only requested that it be done as soon as possible and that he would have his usual air-tight alibi. Oh and that it would be painful, embarrassing and in public.

And possible it was and as it turned out would happen the very next day and not a moment too soon. Ginny had made the mistake of pouncing on Harry as soon as he walked into the Tower, even beating Hermione to the punch.

"I need your broom Harry. Angelina wants us to practice first thing tomorrow so I need it now since you won't be needing it," she had said coyly going even so far as to bat her lashes at him while hanging onto his arm and trying to snuggle up to him.

"Get your own broom and leave me alone Ginny. I don't like you, won't date you and would sooner break my broom into little pieces before I see you mount your skanky ass on it."

That definitely got everybody's attention. Their attention was held as a furious Ginny viciously slapped Harry's face before screaming "GIVE ME THE FUCKING BROOM. I DESERVE IT AND YOU CAN'T USE IT AND DUMBLEDORE SAYS I CAN HAVE IT SO TURN IT OVER NOW."

She said it so loud that Harry was momentarily deaf for a moment before repeating no, she couldn't have it and to go blow a Slytherin. He then attempted to go up to his dorm but was instead hit in the back with a curse and then repeatedly hexed with a few more before Neville managed to grab Ginny's wand out of her hand. She then slapped Neville and tried to wrench her wand out of his hands but he threw it at Harry as he lay on the floor in a lot of pain.

Now Neville thought that Harry would use the wand against Ginny but instead Harry knew better as he would just get into more trouble so he smilingly broke her wand in two, got shakily to his feet and shoved the pieces into Ginny' open mouth before shouting a few obscenities and then exiting out of the Tower. He then used a bit of wandless magic to lock the Tower portrait hole and ran (or rather limped away) for his life. He sincerely hoped that Neville wasn't being too abused but promised to make it up to him if he were.

Throwing his cloak over his shoulders, he limped off to another hidden alcove before calling out for Samson and being taken back to the lair. "Tell Kreacher it happens tomorrow."

He then asked Samson to rescue Neville if he could and gave him permission to bring him to the lair. However, Samson returned to tell Harry that he had difficulty saving Neville as Ginny had physically attacked him, then the Twins hexed him, Ginny gave him a few bad kicks to his torso and actually broke a few of his ribs and then poor Neville was thrown out of the portrait hole and left to suffer in the hallway as Ginny and the Twins left to complain directly to Dumbledore.

Yep, Ginny was going down no later than tomorrow if Harry had to do it himself in the middle of the Great Hall. As it was Samson was ordered to fetch Neville after he saw Madame Pomfrey and take him back to the G3's home and see to his injuries and needs. "Oh and don't forget to save Trevor as who knows what the Gdorks (Harry's name for the Gryffindors) will do to the animal."

Samson had just barely managed to rescue Trevor as Angelina was forcing Dean and Seamus to find the beloved pet so that "an example could be made" for Neville to understand that you don't go against the wishes of _the Gryffindors who really matter_. Luckily for Trevor he had done one of his famous escapes and was lurking a few floors down so Angelina's accio hadn't worked.

Samson then took it upon himself to seek out and "rescue" Crookshanks if only because for some strange reason cat and toad were friends and Trevor needed a friend. It would also upset "Bossy Bushy Bucky Beaver Bitch" (or B5) into thinking that one of the Gdorks had stolen and done something bad to her beloved pet. In any event Samson was well-pleased with his work. He then started some payback on his own.

The next morning all three girls of the Gryffindor Quidditch team woke up with a severe case of crotch rot. It was so bad (because house elves can be right bastards when they choose) that a very bad smell was being emitted from the girls' private areas which could not be hidden and the itch was extremely painful and embarrassing as they were itching uncontrollably all the way to the Infirmary.

Unfortunately for the girls, Madame Pomfrey was all out of the special cream needed to cure the itch – "I'll ask Severus if he has the time to brew some up for you" – and the girls had to be admitted to the quarantine section of the Infirmary for "modesty's sake" and because due to the severity of the itch, Pomfrey "feared it might be some sort of contagion" so she wasn't taking any chances.

Besides, she had treated poor Neville for his injuries and thought he deserved a little payback against those who hurt him – again!

The next interesting thing to happen at the school was Harry Potter calming walking into the Great Hall for breakfast with his broom. Ginny smiled smugly thinking that he was going to hand it over to her because she had barged into Dumbledore's office telling him about what "bad, mean, stupid Harry had done to her" and he swore he would order the boy to hand it over to his "future wife" as Dumbledore liked to call Ginny.

Dumbledore hadn't told Harry but instead had ordered McGonagall to order Harry to hand over the broom as Harry would be GIVING, not loaning the broom to Ginny because he had publically embarrassed her and it would be his way of apologizing to her as well as being punished for his bad behavior.

However, instead of walking over to the Gryffindor table and surrendering his broom, Harry went to the middle of the hall, pulled out what the Muggleborns recognized as a long type of lighter and set fire to his broom. He had taken the precaution of wearing fireproof gloves to protect his hands as he had dosed the broom in an inflammatory liquid. The broom burst into flames and was half destroyed before anyone could react.

He then thumbed his nose at Ginny – and the entire Gryffindor table actually – before expressing his true opinion of the furious girl to everyone and then started (and hoped) to make his getaway.

However, Ginny had recovered and unknown to Harry had been loaned a wand until such time as she could go to Ollivander's and purchase a new custom made (hence very expensive) wand which Harry would be paying for. She started screaming even worse than her Mother and pulling out the new temporary wand started throwing some very harmful spells at Harry while using language that would cause the most harden Death Eater or disgusting whore from Knockturn Alley to blush.

Harry's dodging skills served him well as he hoped someone would save him from the crazy girl's wrath but, not surprisingly, no one did. He was lucky that Madame Pomfrey had just made her way into the hall as she was the one to stun the girl into unconsciousness after she managed to hit Harry with an almost lethal and definitely forbidden curse. Pomfrey then rushed to Harry's aid followed by Flitwick who had come out of his shock and together they gave him emergency treatment to stabilize him enough so that he could be taken to the Infirmary.

Pomfrey started venting her spleen directing her indelicate but deserving foul language towards the Head Table, who as usual had done nothing to help, although Dumbledore did get out of his seat and headed towards Pomfrey but much to his great surprise, Flitwick sent a stunner taking Dumbledore down.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves – especially you Minerva McGonagall," yelled Flitwick as he helped Pomfrey take Potter from the room.

No one said or did anything until the door to the Great Hall was closed and then the entire Slytherin table broke out in laughter. Then Snape actually laughed before he revived Dumbledore, helped him up and asked if he could accompany him to the Infirmary to give out the punishment that Potter was surely going to receive.

"Please let me handle the detentions," he asked nicely. "A month's worth should be sufficient."

"Now, now Severus, don't be greedy as I am sure Minerva would like a crack at the boy. Oh and let me un-stun poor Miss Weasley."

"Poor" Miss Weasley was unstunned and immediately started throwing a temper tantrum that shocked most and scared the hell out of the rest. Unfortunately for both she and Snape, Dumbledore decided he would see to Harry later and that all would finish their breakfast and head out to their classes. He did command that NO ONE, not even a Weasley was allowed to see Harry until after Dumbledore _handled the matter_.

He assured everyone that Potter would be suitably punished and that Harry would buy Miss Weasley a broom of her choosing to make up for his ungentlemanly and unsportsmanlike behavior. This pacified her just a bit. The stupid, greedy little bitch then had the nerve to demand – in public as she was in the Great Hall before the assembled student body – that she wanted more. Harry Potter was to pay for a shopping spree at Madam Malkin's and then maybe – just maybe – Ginny would forgive him.

Even the Slytherins were quiet upon hearing this demand. No one, not even most Gryffindors could believe what they were hearing. Had Dumbledore really gone insane? Draco had to admit that even Potter didn't deserve this even if he was…well Potter.

Draco had to immediately write and send off a letter to his Father as the Dark Lord had to know about this as soon as possible. Dumbledore seemed to be doing everything in his power to alienate the Golden Boy and it didn't make sense. Granted he had always treated Potter like dragon dung but this was ridiculous. What was Dumbledore hoping to gain?

Forcing Harry Potter to humble himself to the whims, wishes and plans of Albus Dumbledore that was what. Harry had been showing entirely too much independence and had not been acting as the abused, desperately needy boy he usually was. He was distancing himself from his "friends" and hadn't been showing enough grief for the death of Ron Weasley and was now refusing to date Ginny who was to take Ron's place in the Golden Trio.

For some inexplicable reason all of Fudge's plans of humiliation and slander were in ashes and according to Snape, Voldemort had nothing to do with any of it. In fact, the Dark Lord was very interested, not to mention amused, about what was going on at Hogwarts. He wanted constant updates from Severus and had sent his Death Eaters out to gather information concerning the strange occurrences happening at the Ministry.

But then a happy Dark Lord meant a lot less pain for his minions so Snape was happy because he wasn't in pain and James Potter's spawn was being treated much worse than usual. The Mutt was in mourning and despair because he had lost the Wolf and was too busy getting drunk to worry about his "beloved godson" and was staying out of Snape's way.

Molly Weasley was in deep mourning and pain so that was another thing for Snape to be happy about. Now if only a few more Weasleys would die and the Mutt would quickly and embarrassingly drink himself to death, Severus would be delirious with joy.

The day was turning out nicely for many people. Snape was happy, the Slytherins had been entertained, the Ravenclaw had food for thought and planned to have some lively debates in the Tower after the evening meal, Hufflepuffs got to laugh and be grateful they were Puffs and not stupid, weird, nasty Gryffs and Ginny Weasley was going to get the most expensive, top of the line broom, a custom made wand and at least 1,000 galleons worth of new clothes and accessories.

Even the beaten, battered Harry Potter was happy – sort of. He had his alibi and Pomfrey and Flitwick had stood up for him in front of everyone, saved him from Ginny and were taking care of him. They were both grumbling about Dumbledore, McGonagall, Weasleys and Snape and it cheered Harry's heart.

Now if only Kreacher would do his job before Dumbledore swooped in to chastise him, belittle him, give him the old "I-am-so-disappointed-in-you" look, "punish" him for his "disgraceful behavior" and all the other things he usually did when Harry was injured, down and out, then Harry would be happy. Hopefully Pomfrey would give him a dreamless sleep potion and then let him stay in the Infirmary to recover before Dumbledore got him.

For once Harry was lucky as Pomfrey did give him the potion and he was out like a light and off in the land of dreams when IT happened.

Ginny was making her way to her potions class along with her unwilling entourage (they were heading to potions so couldn't escape her) regaling them with the broom she was going to get and all the clothes she would soon be wearing. It was making most of them gag but what else was new. So lost in her thoughts was Ginny and so trying to ignore her were the other fourth year Gryffindors girls that none of them noticed the half dozen or so Dementors that were floating towards them until it was too late.

The Slytherins were following close behind them and heard the screams then saw two Gryffindor girls running for their lives, their school books dropped, fear on their faces, screams coming out of their mouths. Naturally they were stopped and grabbed by the Slytherins until one of the Slytherins saw what they had been running from. Then the two Gryffs and all the Slytherins ran for their miserable lives and didn't stop until they ran into Snape who started to yell at them until he saw why they were running.

Fortunately for them he was one of the few teachers who could perform a Patronus with ease and stayed to fight the Dementors off while telling his Slytherins to go for help. He wasn't able to send a notification Patronus due to fighting off the Dementors. The creatures had retreated back to where they came by the time Dumbledore and the others arrived.

Snape advised that Aurors be sent for and the Ministry alerted but as usual Dumbledore said no, he would investigate first and then decide if the Ministry should be told. As they headed towards the potion lab they saw a good reason to contact the Ministry. There on the floor lay three Gryffindor girls, Ginny Weasley being one of them. Their souls had been sucked out.

McGonagall stifled a scream and merely turned her head away from the scene only to see the fourth year Gryffindor boys arriving. They had seen the Slytherins and two Gryff girls running in the opposite direction but being Gryffindor boys, as well as already being late for Snape's class, they kept going to the potions lab. But that's a Gryffindor for you!

Professor Sinistra had come with Dumbledore and she was at first shocked and then extremely angry when she heard the Headmaster forbidding Snape from alerting the Ministry as he needed time to think.

'Damn the man," Sinistra thought, "he's doing it again."

She then made the decision to sneak away and alert the Ministry herself, flooing over to inform Amelia Bones of what had happened and casually mentioning that there were at least six Dementors lurking around Hogwarts and they had already claimed three victims and what DUMBLEDORE WAS NOT doing about it.

Harry blissfully slept all day and did not awake until very early the next day only to be greeted by a pale faced Pomfrey who told him about the events of the prior day.

He was totally able to look completely shocked because he was as he never expected Kreacher of being able to pull off something like that! It was pure genius and he hoped someone had a memory he could get and view in a pensive (a very useful article he had found out about thanks to Samson).

What he really wanted to see was a memory of Malfoy. The ponce and his cronies had been on their way to the Great Hall after being sent there along with all other students by Madame Bones while she and her Aurors searched for the Dementors. They had just entered the hall when out of the shadows three Dementors floated out and hovered directly over Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Draco let out such a "girly scream" that despite the fear which suddenly and completely gripped the assembled students, much laughter broke out.

Draco panicked. The doors of the hall had automatically shut behind him and Draco kept screaming, flailing his arms wildly and had even grabbed Crabbe to use as a human shield. He even went so far as the yell out "Mummy" at the top of his lungs, he completely soiled himself – and it showed - and tears started streaming down his face as he kept trying to push Crabbe towards the creatures.

Fortunately for Draco, two Aurors had been assigned to the hall to protect the children and they managed to drive the creatures into a corner and subdue them with the special Ministry control device used to control the Dementors stationed at the Ministry. They had no trouble thinking up a happy thought as the son of Lucius Malfoy was providing enough merriment to fuel the Patronuses of a dozen Aurors.

Try as he might, Draco would never, ever live it down. It even made the _Daily Prophet_ as the students and Aurors who had been interviewed all made sure to mention it and the many enemies of Lucius Malfoy delighted in reading about the antics of the Malfoy heir.

Voldemort actually laughed out loud and not his usual evil, fear-rendering laugh but a hearty, merry chuckle which evolved into a full joyous laugh. He was obliged to leave the presence of his assembled Death Eaters to control himself and to let them recover from their own laughter. Lucius merely wanted to crawl into a deep hole and pull a rock over it.

Since Pomfrey had allowed herself to laugh when she told Harry about Draco's behavior, Harry let himself go and also laughed. It was going to be another good day for Harry – until Molly Weasley tried fighting her way into the Infirmary.

Dumbledore had a charm placed on the Infirmary to alert him when Harry finally woke up. Unfortunately, Molly was in his office and when he excused himself to try to sneak off to interrogate Harry, Molly realized where he was going and followed him. Now there was nothing stopping Dumbledore from forbidding her coming even if he had to stun her. But being the total bastard he was he simply made excuses and only succeeded in delaying the evitable confrontation.

Thus, they would be arriving at the Infirmary just as Harry and Pomfrey would be laughing at Draco's antics but it could (and would) be interpreted as they were laughing over Ginny's death. Snape noticed it as had McGonagall, but this time McGonagall finally "grew some" and sent a warning Patronus to Pomfrey. Medi-witch and boy had had just enough time to flee to Pomfrey's office and floo out to the safety of St. Mungo's just as Molly Weasley burst through the Infirmary doors. Well actually she blew them open as they had been spelled locked and she was in a hurry to hurl abuse at Harry Potter because although he had an air-tight alibi, it was still his fault that Dementors had been waiting in the potions class to suck out Ginny's soul.

Molly was so grief-stricken and mad that somebody, even an innocent must suffer. She might even kill Harry Potter if only because he was alive and her Ronnie and Ginny were not. At the very least she would physically hurt him as much as possible. Then she would sue him for damages and get as much money from him as she could. At the very least she would demand (AND WOULD GET) the entire contents of his trust vault.

Molly had had seven children for the sole reason that she wanted to have a daughter to break the "Weasley curse" of producing nothing but males. Had Charlie or Percy been born a girl, she would have gotten what she wanted and stopped having children. It had taken her seven tries before she finally got her girl and stopped having children.

However, now she didn't have her girl and had lost a boy. Unlike Muggle woman, a healthy witch was capable of having children until they were about sixty. Molly was only 46 and thus could try again to get herself another girl as she had finally found the proper spell to have a girl and had used it to birth Ginny. With Potter's money she could dress the girl beautifully (or Molly's version of good taste) and give her an excellent dowry. While that would never bring back her precious children, all of that lovely money would help her cope with her grief.

However, she entered the Infirmary just in time to see Pomfrey and Potter flooing away. She hurried over to the floo to follow them but the floo was locked. She screamed for Dumbledore to reopen it and he did try but much to his surprise it wouldn't open for him. No matter, he would eventually find the boy and make him grovel so that he would protect him from Molly's wrath.

But once Harry reached the safety of St. Mungo's and Pomfrey had put the emergency floo lock into place, Harry made his escape to a nearby broom closet while Pomfrey was busy explaining things to a healer.

Once safely in the closet Harry summoned Samson and told him to take him to the lair until things calmed down. However, Samson suggested another alternative. Things had advanced sooner than expected and with Dumbledore currently away from his office and handling Molly in the Infirmary Plan A could not be put into action.

Thus when Albus Dumbledore was finally able to return to his office he at first did not notice that Fawkes was gone. No doubt the bird was out flying and would come when he summoned him. He called out for the bird but the phoenix didn't answer his call. That was strange as Fawkes had no choice in the matter as when Dumbledore summoned him he had to answer.

It was then that Dumbledore noticed that all of the many monitors he had on Harry Potter were missing! All of them.

It couldn't be possible. There was no way that Potter could escape as he didn't know what the twinkling, gaudy trinkets were or that they monitored and helped to control his life and every movement. Besides even if he did, there was nothing he could do about it as he couldn't destroy them and Dumbledore had the means to create more.

However, Dumbledore didn't know it yet but all traces of Harry's blood and even DNA had been carefully and painstakingly removed during the past weeks. Privet Drive had been completely sterlized as had Arabella Figg's house. Elves had snuck into the Burrow and had removed any trace of Harry Potter while leaving the dirt of the Weasleys intact.

It was the same with the Quidditch patch, the locker room, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and even Harry's old primary school and all parts of the Dursleys' neighborhood. Kreacher had purged Grimmauld Place the very day Harry had left for school. During the past week the elves had been cleaning all through Hogwarts on the sly and once Dumbledore had left the Infirmary, that too was completely cleaned and sterlized.

Harry's possessions had been collected and taken to a place of safety but most of them had been destroyed. Only Harry's photo album was saved as everything else had some form of tracker placed on it even Harry's raggity underwear. Harry had destroyed his broom the day before and its ashes were retrieved and destroyed.

The invisibility cloak was heavily spelled and the elves couldn't remove them so they did the next best thing and placed it and the photo album in a special magical box and then sealed it shut. It would not be able to be traced by anyone now. Even Fawkes had been stunned and magically boxed so that he could not be summoned by Dumbledore

Snape's potion lab and the classroom had also been purged and a few of Harry's new elves would spend the rest of the day removing every single DNA trace of Harry Potter from the school.

Dobby the elf had been called in to help but he had to been stunned and "boxed" until he and Hedwig could be taken to a wizarding firm on the Continent that specialized in removing charms/hexes off of living creatures as Dumbledore had placed tracking charms and compulsions on the lovable elf who lived to serve Harry Potter and Harry's faithful beloved owl. Hopefully he could be saved otherwise he would have to be obliviated and rebonded to some good family in another country.

Dumbledore knew he had thought of everything and he had, but G3 had had the time and resources to research and and outmanuever the old wily wizard. The elves didn't have to finish this day's cleaning but would do it anyway just to be completely safe. Besides they had to do Neville Longbottom's and one other person's DNA to be doubly safe just in case Dumbledore put two and two together and decided to look for them.

Harry Potter had just been freed but no one knew it yet.


	5. Chapter 5 - Christmas Dinner

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 5 – Christmas Dinner

It was soon noticed at St. Mungo's that Harry had disappeared almost immediately after he arrived. It was announced that he was kidnapped and eventually the Ministry would have to be notified but a "believable" story had already been prepared in advance.

It would be ironic but Molly Weasley would be blamed for Potter's disappearance and presumed kidnapping. Her screeching and loud threat concerning Potter had been heard by many at Hogwarts, including nearly all of the staff. Minerva McGonagall would admit that she had sent a warning message to Pomfrey telling her to take Potter to a place of safety due to the vengeful witch's threats and she had, their arrival at St. Mungo's had been witnessed and recorded but then Potter had just disappeared.

Since he didn't have a wand and was only wearing Infirmary pajamas it wasn't as if he could have run away on his own. For Merlin's sakes the boy wasn't even wearing any form of shoes or Infirmary-issued slippers.

Pandemonium broke out, the press had a field day and many theories were circulating. Fudge was going crazy, Dumbledore was furious and issuing orders right and left and Snape was soon worn to a frazzle due to going back and forth doing Dumbledore's assignments while having to keep Voldemort constantly updated.

No one knew where the kid was and it would stay that way. After about a week it was noticed that Neville Longbottom was missing. He hadn't been seen since Pomfrey had dismissed him from the Infirmary and he started making his way back to Gryffindor Tower. Luna Lovegood recalled seeing him and asking what had happened to him as did a few lower year Hufflepuffs who Neville tutored in Herbology.

From what could be pieced together, after his brief chat with the Hufflepuffs, who he told he was going back to Gryffindor Tower, he had not been seen again. Apparently he had never arrived at the Tower and even the portraits hadn't noticed him.

This was just another mystery to add to the ever growing list of the "disasters of 1995" and fear was quickly spreading through the school. Then Raisa Webbich, a rather nasty Ravenclaw 7th year and her best friend, 6th year Slytherin Mariah Waverly also disappeared. There was no reason why these two girls should suddenly disappear without trace – except for the fact that they were terrible bullies who had caused a lot of pain to many younger years during their time at Hogwarts, but no one really cared or thought that could possibly be the reason.

Fudge took the opportunity to discredit Dumbledore blaming him for all the deaths, disappearances and disasters and he did have a point. Dumbledore had done too many things to make Harry Potter's life a living hell and it was Harry Potter who was responsible for all the things happening at Hogwarts but no one knew that.

Sirius Black had sobered up enough to find out his "beloved godson" had been kidnapped or something like that. This was due to Molly Weasley having to flee for her life and hide out at Grimmauld Place until things cooled down. She was wanted for questioning regarding Potter's disappearance and Fudge was "looking for her" and not even her own husband knew where she was. This last fact was due to Dumbledore obliviating the existence of Grimmauld Place from Arthur's and the Twins' minds.

But Sirius' perpetual hangover and Molly's big mouth were not getting along. Kreacher would eventually gleefully report back all of the many fights between wizard and witch and one time they had actually started dueling and only the fact that Tonks had been staying at Grimmauld Place had saved them from killing each other - yet.

A joyful Kreacher couldn't wait for THE FINAL FIGHT wherein he was certain that one of them would kill the other and he didn't care which one it was. The other one would get in trouble and hopefully (but it was doubtful) Dumbledore would punish the "winner" for killing the loser.

It happened during the Christmas holiday when the Order of the Phoenix members assembled at Grimmauld Place to celebrate the holiday and have numerous meetings. Since the Black fortune was providing the Order with all its food and drink, Molly Weasley went all out and had ordered only top of the line food and drink.

She spent her days cooking and mostly staying in the kitchen which she had claimed as her personal domain. Several people dined at Grimmauld Place every day and not just because they were moochers like Mundungus Fletcher. Ever since Remus had died and Harry went missing, Sirius had sunk into such a depression that Dumbledore decided it would be best if Molly stopped antagonizing him. Their fights had become so bitter and nasty that Dumbledore was having the Order members who had "guarded" Harry Potter during the summer to now do the same for Sirius and Molly.

Dumbledore had ordered Sirius not to come downstairs in his own house unless there was an Order meeting or Dumbledore was present. It was insulting, demeaning and totally uncalled for but it also protected Sirius' life as Molly had begun to actually threaten the man. To make sure Sirius obeyed, Dumbledore had spelled him to stay either in his room or in the room where he cared for Buckbeak.

Molly had refused to allow Sirius Black "in her kitchen" as well as bringing him the meals she so lovingly prepared – for others. Therefore so that the man could eat, the Order member on guard was responsible for seeing that Sirius got fed and was supplied with fire whiskey to keep him sedated.

Once again Molly "won" and Dumbledore had showed certain other Order members (like Snape) that they were subservient to him and whoever else he chose to favor. Molly ruled and although she couldn't taunt Sirius 95% of the time, she made up for it during the meetings with snide remarks, innuendoes and just plain cruelty. As "the poor woman is in mourning for her dead children" everyone was to be extra kind and understanding to her on orders of Dumbledore.

Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius' second cousin, was furious. More than anything in the world she regretted joining the Order of the Phoenix. She had been lured into joining by her Auror mentors, Alastar Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt as well as getting to know her favorite cousin once again. Instead she had constantly witnessed only the abuse and humiliation shown to him, Lord Black and the fact that his best friend, Remus Lupin had died and his godson was missing and it was partially Molly Weasley's fault.

Dumbledore ruled not only the Order but treated his followers with distain and had actually put that miserable Weasley bitch in charge of running a Black Family home while insulting Lord Black. Insulting Lord Black. He was her kinsman despite she and her Mother being disowned. She was one step away from resigning from the Order and she had a very bad feeling about the oncoming holiday. Just one more thing!

And then the one more thing happened. Dumbledore wanted every Order member to assemble for a mandatory Christmas dinner. Even he would not be staying at Hogwarts to preside over the celebrations. In all the years he had been a teacher, Deputy Headmaster and Headmaster he had never, ever missed the Hogwarts Christmas feast but this year was special and he would announce why at the Order feast.

Tonks had planned to spend most of Christmas with her parents, especially Christmas Day. She had to work that Day but she would be done with work at 6:00 p.m. and would then go to her parents' home. However, she like the other Order members who were Aurors were ORDERED by Dumbledore to come to Grimmauld Place for the feast and then the mandatory meeting.

She and the other Aurors arrived on time and dinner hadn't been held until they got out of work. The entire Order of the Phoenix was seated at the magically expanded table in the Black dining room. Dumbledore had already made his grand entrance and the table was groaning with food and expensive wines.

However, before anyone could begin eating, Dumbledore gave a short (for him) speech just dripping with propaganda and Dumbledore-ish platitudes. Dumbledore highly disproved of certain rites which he considered dark, such as anything that bordered on the religious. However, he considered his speeches as serving as saying "grace" or invoking familial rituals. Other people didn't but since he was Albus Dumbledore and they were not, they had to put up with it.

Finally he was finished, sat down and informed all assembled that they could be eating. Food was being passed around and that was when Tonks noticed that Sirius was missing. "Where's Sirius?" she asked loudly.

There was silence for just a second until Molly Weasley's loud screeching voice answered the question saying, "You know perfectly well that I will not allow that drunken, miserable excuse for a wizard to sit down at my table and eat my good food."

A gasp was heard coming from many and Snape looked over to watch Dumbledore's expression. Just as he thought Dumbledore had a very slight smile on his face and the twinkle in his eyes was brightening.

Tonks looked at Molly Weasley with a very evil glare on her pretty face before dangerously saying, "First of all this is NOT YOUR TABLE NOR DID YOU PAY FOR THIS FOOD AND DRINK. IT BELONGS TO THE HOUSE OF BLACK AND IS THEREFORE LORD SIRIUS BLACK'S TABLE AND…"

"I WILL NOT BE TALKED TO IN SUCH A MANNER ESPECIALLY BY A FREAKY, SLUT FROM A DARK FAMILY," Molly yelled out.

Mundungus Fletcher started eating quickly as well as stuffing food in his large pockets as he knew that the explosion all expected to eventually happen was going to and he really wanted to have a good Christmas dinner.

A screaming fest broke out between Tonks and Molly and a lot of profanity was spewed out by Tonks and much slander, accusations and bigotry was yelled by Molly. Snape kept watching Dumbledore to see how long he would allow this to go on before he stopped it - and sided with Molly.

"This is an official Order meeting so Sirius should be here," Tonks yelled only to be told by Moody to "Quiet girl, Dumbledore's in charge and this is just a Christmas feast. Sirius will be allowed to attend the meeting – after the feast is over."

"IT'S SIRIUS' FUCKING HOUSE," she screamed.

"But it is also the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore finally said softly. "I am the Leader of the Order and Sirius is one of the members of my Order and is subject to my commands. He voluntarily gave the use of _his home_ to the Order and for me to use as I see fit. I have assigned Molly Weasley as the official housekeeper of the Order and thus she is in charge of the running of the house."

"BUT IT'S HIS HOUSE…"

"Which I am in charge of," he said raising his voice slightly. "Molly is quite correct in saying that Sirius' behavior is…not acceptable. That is why he is forbidden the use of his so-called home - which he has always hated – until he learns to control his outrageous and disturbing behavior. After the feast and just before the meeting commences, you may take a plate of food up to Sirius and then he may attend the meeting."

"THAT ISN'T FAIR!"

"In my opinion it is and I expect my orders to be followed as given. In fact," he actually purred his eyes beginning to twinkle madly, "I believe an apology to Molly is required, then to me then to the members of the Order."

"&%*#%&#&""?#( (* ( ""++** was the only reply Tonks gave as she turned and left the room. Before the she could slam the door behind her she heard the laughter, the loudest of which was screeching cackle which belonged to Molly Weasley.

Tonks had never ever been so angry, so mad, so embarrassed and infuriated in her entire life. She blindly made her way to the door but then suddenly stopped directly in front of the portrait of Walburga Black. Throwing caution to the wind, she went up to the portrait and whispered softly to it.

"Before the Lady Black starts yelling at this dishonorable, filthy half-breed daughter of a disgraced blood traitor, please listen to what I have to say in regard to the most infuriating, abominable and detestable insult that was just given to the Ancient and Noble House of Black. It is so bad that even one such as I must take offense to the original house of my traitorous Mother's ancestors."

The curtains hiding the portrait wiggled a bit which Tonks took to mean the portrait would listen. So Tonks poured out what had happened and it was noticeable that her voice was shaking whether from anger or sadness or both.

"I will be quitting that miserable Order of the Phoenix this very night. I don't know why Sirius stays and obeys but he does. I think he took an oath on his life and magic when he joined the Order after he graduated Hogwarts so that he can't disobey Dumbledore."

"However, since he can't – and probably wouldn't want to anyway – avenge the insults, I humbly ask that the Lady Walburga perhaps order her miserable old house elf to maybe…banish all of the food and drink in this house starting with the Christmas dinner that your own son and The Lord Black has been denied eating?" she asked hopefully.

"Also, could you have the elf close down the Black account with the vendors who supply this house with food, drink and supplies? It is Black money – probably from the main vault – which is funding Dumbledore's Order of blood traitors and…"

"I advise you not to do that portrait of an old hag," said the voice of Alastor Moody. "If you do I can almost guarantee that the house elf will be killed, your portrait destroyed and Sirius will just be forced to reinstate the vendor accounts."

Tonks was about to yell something at Moody but he beat her to it. "And you girly…well you are in so much trouble that you'd be much safer finding Voldemort, marching into a Death Eater meeting and demanding that he gets down on his knees and give you the world's greatest oral sex."

"MOODY!" she shrieked in outrage at the vulgarity.

"Sorry but you know I tend to curse when I'm angry. However, the fact remains that Dumbledore wants you to come back to the dining room and give some very thorough, groveling and embarrassing apologies to…."

"HELL NO. THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL, HADES, GHENNA…"

"You don't have a choice girl. Albus Dumbledore owns you body, soul and magic."

The old Auror sighed heavily. "He tricked me – again. When he first started the Order he made everybody promised on their life and magic that they would obey him in all things. Most didn't think and swore because they thought it was a lark and that Albus Dumbledore would never abuse the oath. They were wrong and that is one of the reasons Sirius acts the way he does. To come back to Britain to be near Harry and not be turned over to the Aurors, Dumbledore reinforced the oath. I don't know what it contained but…well you see what Sirius has to put up with."

"Now when I started recruiting people, like you lass, I made Albus promise that he would change the wording of the oath and not …well basically enslave people. He hemmed and hawed but then promised. He did change the oath, however, he slipped in a new part about you abiding by the bylaws of the Order. When you swore on that it means you swore to follow everything in the bylaws. Guess what's in the bylaws?"

"Probably that we agree to do everything on the list on our life and magic so he still got the same oath only sneakily?" Tonks said.

"Yes. And that is why I've been sent to bring you back because you will be doing everything Dumbledore is commanding including apologizing to that Prewett/Weasley Bitch even though you've done nothing wrong."

"I'd rather die!"

"No you wouldn't but you just might do so or at least lose some or all of your magic and then wish you were dead."

"And you let this happen to me?"

"I will swear on my life and magic that I didn't know otherwise I wouldn't have let you and those other three kids join up. I only just found out when I received a copy by owl sent by 'anonymous' and confronted Albus. He laughed at me. He admitted it was true but necessary for the Greater Good and I just wouldn't understand. He then caught me off guard and hit me with a spell so that I can't warn anybody else."

"You just 'warned' me."

"Yes but I can only do that because you are already in the Order."

He looked at her with sadness in his old eyes before saying, "I'm sorry. I can't make it up to you and if you want to hex me into next week you can and I'll not try to stop you. However, you have to come back to the dining room and provide…the Christmas entertainment. Snape's been sent to fetch Sirius so he can witness your…punishment. You never know with Albus and his 'sense of humor' or the 'rewards' he bestows on his favorites. I think this will be a reward for Molly cooking Christmas dinner or something ridiculous like that."

"I hate you Moody."

"I know and I don't blame you as I hate myself. I failed you and others because I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been. I apologize to you now for what you will have to go through but," he whispered, "I will help you and Sirius get some revenge on the old bitch, I swear."

With that said Moody escorted Tonks back towards the dining room only to see Snape helping an obviously drunk Sirius Black down the stairs. Snape had been sent to fetch Black and inform him about the "apology" his foolish cousin was going to give and that Dumbledore thought Sirius should witness and then advise her to behave herself.

"Consider it a Christmas present Severus that you get to be the one to bring down Sirius to witness the humbling of his House, his cousin and…well to reinforce the lessons which he simply refuses to learn" Dumbledore had whispered to Snape.

Ordinarily there would be nothing Snape would enjoy better, but not when it involved Dora Tonks. She had been his student after all and despite being a relative of one of his mortal enemies… well he didn't hate her as much as he usually would have. The damn girl was a Hufflepuff for Merlin's sake.

She had been tricked into becoming an Order member just as much as so many other innocents had been. The Marauders deserved to be enslaved by Dumbledore but others…well they hadn't and they lost their lives and the lives of their families due to Dumbledore's inept leadership and manipulations.

Snape had had to swear allegiance to Dumbledore in order to save Lily (which Snape now knew Dumbledore had no intention whatsoever of doing) and then to give an oath to protect Harry Potter as "that was all that was left on this earth of his Lily. It was the only thing which had kept him out of Azkaban.

However, Snape had been able to get out of swearing the Order oath because, as he told Dumbledore, "I will be obliged to swear to the Dark Lord that I am not an Order member" and Dumbledore had accepted it. He probably didn't believe it which was why he had made Snape swear the special oath regarding protecting Harry Potter. But he got much of what he wanted.

It had been Snape who had sent the anonymous copy of the bylaws to Moody hoping that now that Moody knew he would find a way to warn people despite the oath he had been tricked into taking.

Merlin how Snape hated oaths.

When Snape had been sent to fetch Black, he had actually felt pity for the wizard. Because he was Severus Snape he told Black why he was being fetched and then told the man he pitied him. He really did on this occasion but he also knew that Black would hate to be pitied by the likes of Severus Snape so Snape did get to have a "present" after all.


	6. Chapter 6 - Retailiation

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 6 – Retaliation

Neither Moody nor Tonks knew it but Kreacher was lurking about listening into the conversations. He had followed Tonks out wondering if she would leave or go crying to the Mistress' bad son. Since the Order was having their feast (paid with the Black wealth) Kreacher had activated the runes hidden in the room. After the feast he would just remove the runes which recorded everything said and done in the room and view them at his leisure before he reported to his Mistress. He would also be sending them to Harry Potter if is Mistress agreed.

Kreacher had heard everything. He asked his for instructions then he popped off to obey them. He had been sneaking books, heirlooms and many other useful things from the house especially once the Order of Traitors had taken over. The Blood Traitor from Hell (one of the nicer names he called Molly Weasley) seemed to live only to destroy anything belonging to the Ancient and Noble House of Black because "all of it was evil and should be destroyed" if only because "her precious children" were being forced to live there.

Kreacher packed up as much as he could in the time he had before he had to pop out, call for Samson and brief him on the happenings at Grimmauld Place. Samson took the bottomless bag Kreacher used for his packing and waited patiently until Samson returned and told him Harry had agreed to his Mistress' request. Kreacher then popped back to Grimmauld Place, did a quick reconnaissance before removing the portrait from the wall and replacing it with a fake one. He then popped his mistress back to Samson.

By this time the feast was over and most of the Order had been sent home except for those like the entire Weasley family who were spending the holidays at Headquarters. Kreacher gave Samson the runes from the dining room and put in a new rune. He then went to spy on the Order members who were lounging around the kitchen.

Samson took the runes to Harry and he and the portrait of Walburga Black watched the events play out. Neville and Luna also viewed them and after the recording had ended it had been Neville who surprisingly said, "You have to punish Molly Weasley since you can't do it to Dumbledore."

Tonks had been totally and viciously humiliated. Molly got to verbally attack her regarding "her rudeness, stupidity and all of the insults she had given to 'Molly's guests'" and most importantly how disrespectful she had been to Albus Dumbledore the greatest wizard since Merlin, the Leader of the Light, the defeater of Grindelwald, the savior of them all, etc., etc., etc. Like her late son Ron, Molly loved to hear herself talk and thought nothing of belittling and insulting anybody.

Then Molly started in on Sirius who, because he was drunk and just plain angry, told her what she should really do. Naturally it was very rude and only served to start Molly off on a tirade of epic proportions, much to the amusement of many. However, many Order members totally agreed with Sirius but would not dare defend him.

After about a half hour of spitting out verbal abuse, Dumbledore informed Tonks to give Molly a heartfelt apology – after she first apologized to him and the Order members. "You will apologize to Molly until she is satisfied that you are really contrite no matter how long it takes," he told her in his most irritating grandfatherly voice.

"Don't do it," Sirius had ordered his cousin, and then gave the reasons why she shouldn't in even more vulgar terms. A fight broke out but didn't get very far as Dumbledore wanted to finish his meal and knowing there would be no pudding until Molly was "satisfied" he told Tonks to start the apologies. He even helped her along by casting a compulsion charm on her. She fought it valiantly but had to start apologizing even though it was plain to see from the expression on her face she didn't mean any of it and just glared at Molly Weasley with hate-filled eyes.

It took almost an hour of compulsions to do more and more degrading apologies, which a smug, superior-looking Molly just refused to any accept as satisfactory. Sirius foolishly threw in his two knuts and that only made matter worse.

It was very painful to watch as once Luna had started crying. The portrait was cursing and had it been truly alive, no doubt it would have thrown hexes at the recording. At the end, Molly had still not been satisfied and Dumbledore, who really wanted his Christmas puddings, told Molly, "It's late, we have to have the meeting and tomorrow is another day. Both Sirius and Nymphadora can try again tomorrow.

With that said Dumbledore sent them both "to bed" or in other words back to Buckbeak's room where they would go without Christmas dinner and think about their rude behavior and practice making a sincere and true apology."

Snape actually wanted to throw up and some people, like McGonagall wanted to cry. Moody wanted to, not for the first time, curse the hell out of Albus Dumbledore as did a few others, but since it was Albus Dumbledore and he said it was for the Greater Good…well it had to be done.

However, whereas no one in the Order of the Phoenix could do anything about it, Harry, now that he was free from Dumbledore, could and would do it. He wouldn't do it for Tonks, who he barely knew or even for Sirius who had been a great disappointment to him. No, he would do something to get back at Dumbledore and to bring him down a peg or two.

Tomorrow he would pay back the Weasleys for their treachery and meanness and then, after he was recovered enough from the physical abuse which Dumbledore had arranged to be done to him, well then the old $#*$& ^& would be taught a lesson, the first of many.

The next morning the _Daily Prophet_ reported that:

" _The Dark Mark was seen over_ _Ottery St. Catchpole and the home and surrounding grounds of a Pureblood family was totally destroyed. However, a Ministry spokes wizard has reiterated that since there is no possibility that You-Know-Who is back – because he is definitely dead and staying that way – no doubt this was an example of another prank like the one done last year at the World Quidditch Cup match when pranksters dressed as Death Eaters and did a bit of malicious mischief."_

As she read the _Prophet_ a rather hung-over Molly Weasley asked her husband Arthur, "Whose house do you think it was?"

"I'd wager it was the Rookery as since Xeno Lovegood refuses to support Dumbledore he won't protect him and the Death Eaters are once again attacking Purebloods who won't join them."

It never for a moment occurred to them that it could be the Burrow since their wards had been recently improved and strengthened by their son Bill under the watchful eye of Dumbledore himself. Only someone who had been given permission to enter could find the Burrow and thus the Weasleys were totally safe.

It wasn't until a frantic Bill Weasley stepped through the floo that they found out all their home, their grounds and everything they owned in the world other than what they had with them, had been totally destroyed.

Molly refused to believe it until Dumbledore arrived to break the sad news that yes, the Burrow was completely destroyed. "However, you will always have a home at Order Headquarters and feel free to order clothes and other necessities through the house accounts," he had cheerfully told Molly and Arthur.

Naturally Molly went…well insane. She screamed, screeched, howled worse than a banshee and had to be restrained. Both Snape and Pomfrey were summoned by Dumbledore to give the woman medical treatment and potions and she had to be strongly potioned before she could be shut up.

She had blamed Sirius and Tonks for sneaking out and demolishing her home and all of her belongings. However, they were still locked in with Buckbeak and their wands had been confiscated so they were declared innocent by Dumbledore so she was not allowed to retaliate against them. She was sedated and unconscious for three days and Poppy Pomfrey was forced to stay at Grimmauld Place not only to tend to the sick witch but to do the cooking and caretaking of the Order members.

Poor Pomfrey was a very good cook and just because he could, Dumbledore made her the servant instead of having a Hogwarts house elf or two come over to do the job. However, he made it quite clear to all that although sick, Molly was still in charge of the house and Pomfrey would be subservient to her and was to obey her orders until school started up once again.

"Molly needs tender, loving care," Dumbledore had told the medi-witch, "and the watchful eye of a trained professional which even a Hogwarts house elf can't provide." It also emphasized the power he had over the medi-witch who was dragged back from spending the holidays with what remained of her family.

Kreacher made a full report to Harry, saying that "At least it has shut her up for three days and bad Master Sirius is allowed out to eat in the kitchen and walk around his OWN HOME. The disowned one (meaning Tonks) was also set free and allowed to return to her work until the next meeting."

"In other words Dumbles is still being the tyrant and SOB he usually is," Harry said. "But let him enjoy another one of his small victories as he will not be having them in another month or so."

Ever since Harry had arrived at "Eden" which was the name of the estate of his ancestors, he had been trying to recover from the years of abuse he had suffered under the Dursleys as well as the abuse which Dumbledore had done to him. At the moment he was almost well enough to put one of his master plans into operation. The healer who G3 had arranged to treat him, estimated that another week and he could take that trip to Gringotts and deliver a killing blow to Dumbledore. Actually it wouldn't kill him but he might be wishing he was dead when he found out about it.

It wasn't until the holidays were finally over and the healer declared Harry was well enough that she took him to the Gringotts Paris branch where he could do the business with the Goblins which he could not do in Britain due to some…irregularities…done by the British Goblins.

Harry had an official heritage test performed before his business could be conducted. These were basically illegal to do in Britain because they were outrageously expensive and you had to have the Ministry's permission to have one. In France it was perfectly legal but not accepted in Britain unless once again the Ministry allowed it and then it had to be done again by the British branch of Gringotts.

However, Harry's true relatives and benefactors had known this and made the necessary provisions so that Harry could claim his inheritances. Unfortunately, he couldn't claim the Potter heritage at the moment and one other, but he would be getting enough of them to cause as much trouble and discomfort to many, many people – especially one Albus Dumbledore.

Since school had started up the only people living at Grimmauld Place was Sirius, Molly and Arthur. Fletcher would drop in daily for a meal or three on orders by Dumbledore to see if Sirius was behaving himself. The occasional member might drop in for a good dinner but at the end of the day, only those three individuals were staying in the house.

Naturally Sirius was once again consigned to his individual prison and at times he was lucky that Molly allowed someone to take dinner to him. Things were so bad that even Kreacher was bringing him food – and the fire whiskey he needed as well as Buckbeak's food. The miserable elf only did this on the orders of Harry Potter.

The "day it would happen" Kreacher had orders to have a bag packed for Sirius, an extra wand and a bag of money ready. Then it would be the elf's job to make sure that Sirius and his equipment was strapped onto Buckbeak so that when the wards changed on Grimmauld Place, Sirius would have a chance to escape.

And the wards were changed without warning casting out all who were a member of the Order of the Phoenix or not a member of the House of Black. All their personal possessions were cast out with them – but only if the possessions had been bought with their money. Therefore all of the good clothes Molly had purchased for her family were left in the house including the ones she had been wearing. All Weasleys found themselves in the street outside of Grimmauld Place stark naked and the clothes they had brought with them were packed in the suitcase Arthur and Molly had brought with them. In any event they hadn't been wearing their old clothes and there was a lot of screaming starting with all Weasleys being naked and Fletcher who had been having a shower also inadvertently showing off his naughty bits.

Of further note, an anonymous note had been sent to Voldemort (written in parsel) that should some of his Death Eaters have nothing better to do on a certain day, they should lurk around a certain neighborhood if they felt like getting into "mischief" or just wiping out blood traitors. So Voldemort had obliged and sent a few new recruits and two old timers to hang around looking for action.

As usual Sirius had been "tending to Buckbeak" meaning he was drinking with the Hippogriff. But as per Harry's orders, the great bird, a bag with necessities and Sirius were all cast out the same time as the Weasleys only further down the street to give him the time to escape. It was too bad that he was so very drunk (thanks a lot to his attempt to recover from the shame of Christmas dinner) that he was a bit disoriented when cast out. Had he been in better "health" or anyone but Sirius Black "prankster extraordinaire" he just might have escaped with his life.

However, he was Sirius Black to the very end and despite seeing several Death Eaters he didn't leave or start a counterattack as an Auror (or any sane person would have done). Instead he laughed at the situation (well it was sort of funny) and heard the screeching of a naked Molly Weasley yelling out her displeasure and attempting to hide "her goodies" from the view of the "fiends" who would no doubt rape her (not that any Death Eater was that desperate).

Actually two of the new recruits were busy throwing up while others laughed or looked away in disgust. Fletcher saw his wand on the ground, grabbed it and apparated away in the first seconds while poor Arthur was shocked and delayed in reacting. Thorfinn Rowle was the senior Death Eater in charge and had to make a quick decision – kill or capture the blood traitors. He opted to stun the naked Weasleys and ordered Black to be stunned or captured (he was too far away to do it himself) but by then Black snapped back into Auror mode, whipped out his wand and started defending himself. Since Dumbledore wasn't around to order "stunning" Sirius cast to harm or kill.

Much to his joy he managed to kill the two new recruits and one another before the other senior Death Eater caught him with a nasty hex. Sirius might have survived had he not fought back and he winged another new recruit before Rowle killed him. Poor Buckbeak was also put down as he tried to first convince Sirius to escape and then went into defense mode before a recruit got the noble bird who was trying to kill the boy.

With the death of Sirius, the Death Eaters rounded up the survivors and the bodies and took them back to Headquarters. There Molly and Arthur Weasley would learn the definition of hell, as they were tortured for information, tortured for fun, especially by Bellatrix in revenge for crimes committed against the House of Black and then their minds were ripped to shreds to obtain every last scrap of information regarding Harry Potter and the plans Dumbledore had for him.

Their bodies and Sirius' were portkeyed into the lobby of the _Daily Prophet_ and although photographs were taken they were so disgusting that even the _Prophet_ wouldn't print them but they did give copies to the Ministry. A letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief had been placed on what was left of Arthur that enclosed a "letter to the editor" which the Editor had to print or would suffer a similar fate as Arthur. He did not need to be told twice.

He had been ordered not to alert Dumbledore or send the bodies to the Ministry until after the _Prophet_ was delivered because as the letter said "The Ministry but most especially Dumbledore would cover up the deaths and forbid you from printing the letter." After reading the letter the Editor had to agree. He also had to admit that it was too "important" to be printed on the Ed-Op page so it started on the front page and continued on pages two and three. Because it was such an interesting letter, the _Prophet_ ran off a double printing because it would definitely sell.


End file.
